East Texas Musings
by LadyHouston
Summary: A collection of drabbles featuring childhood memories of Sheldon. Some of them involve S/P
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Originally posted on LJ S/P Paradox. This drabble is based on my childhood trips to Galveston, but with a Sheldon-y twist. AU.**

Although he grew up just a ten minute car ride away, Sheldon Cooper hated the beach. He remembered his family dragging him to Bolivar Peninsula several times a year and forcing him to take the ferry (which always made him sick) because it would be less crowded than the main island. The muggy Galveston air sank into his lungs and made him feel like he was breathing in a wet, salty cloth. He would stare over the side of the ferry trying his best not to throw up. The water was always a murky brown and the jelly fish clung to the surface of the water, waiting to sting him to death should the boat go down. Sheldon would try to ignore the humid air that would cause his clothes to stick to him and instead would concentrate on the rainbow colored froth that was ever-present in the disgusting gulf water.

When they would arrive at the beach, Sheldon's father would unpack his Budweisers and burgers and his travel barbecue grill and he would insist that the whole family was going to 'get some damn good eatins". Sheldon hated beach burgers. They always tasted like salt water and sand. Oh, and the sand… he hated that too. Galveston's sand was always grey and brown and clumped together and stuck to the body like glue. It would take days to get the sand out of all of his hidden places.

While his sister would wander off in search of sea shells and sand dollars and his brother would stomp around destroying the sand castles of unsuspecting preschoolers, Sheldon would sit on his towel under an umbrella with his nose in a book trying his best to forget that he was sitting in possibly one of the most filthy places on earth. Sometimes, his dad would snatch his book away and tell him to get in the water like a man. This usually ended up with Sheldon crying and his mother coming to his defense. The arguing would commence once again and Sheldon would run out into the sea just to get away from them.

He hated the gulf almost as much as he hated his parents' fights. Whenever he would go in, the water would be warmer than the air, providing no relief whatsoever. The sand and ground up shells below the water would be rough on his bare feet and he didn't want to even think about what creatures were lying below the gloomy surface waiting to drag him under. One time, Missy's toe was bitten by a baby shark. There was blood and everything. Sheldon screamed and his sister chased him around Crystal Beach trying to touch him with her injured foot. He ran to his parents for protection, but his father told him to "quit bein' a goddamn cry baby". His mother then yelled at his father for taking the Lord's name in vain.

There was another time, when he was about ten, they almost got killed by a water spout. Although his family told him he was being paranoid, he maintained that it was his quick thinking that saved their lives. He noticed a change in air pressure and the dim, hazy look to the sky told him that a storm was coming. He tried to tell the rest of his family, but they ignored him and his mother told him to eat his burger. When his sharp hearing picked up the first sound of thunder long before a cloud could be seen, he warned his sister to get out of the water. It wasn't long before a giant black cloud mushroomed overhead, lightening touched the waves and the sand began to kick up in whirls. Sheldon had already packed most of the stray belongings into the car so it didn't take long for the Coopers to get out of there. That's when Missy spotted the waterspout. Sheldon swears it was following the car, but his brother punched him in the arm and told him it was miles away and that waterspouts can't come onto the shore.

Coming home from the beach was always the worst part. He was almost invariably sunburnt to the point where moving became a painful experience. To this day, he checks every one of his moles for signs of melanoma and curses his father for believing that sunblock was for wusses. By the time they would get back on the ferry, the seagulls had figured out that they had food and would get ridiculously close to him, scaring him half to death. He would be covered in mosquito bites that hurt when he scratched because of his sunburn and he knew the neighbors' kids would call him "Lobster Boy" which in his opinion was a pretty stupid super hero name.

They would get home and his father would spray them down with freezing cold water blasted from the garden hose. Then he'd have to take a shower and sand would get all over the bottom of the tub and the warm water would hurt his burnt skin. After he was as clean as he could get (though he'd still have sand stuck in places he didn't want to think about), they would all sit down to leftover Saltwater Sandy Burgers. At night, if he'd gotten in the water at all that day, his sleep rhythms would be interrupted by the physically disturbing feeling of rocking as if still in the polluted waves.

Yes, Sheldon Cooper hated the beach.

So why was it that he was here, sitting on a beach in Santa Monica with three of his closest friends and one treasured acquaintance, and enjoying it? Why was it that although he was surrounded by sand and waves he was without a complaint? He brushed his hand over the loose, white sand and noticed how different it was from the grey clumps of Crystal Beach. He stared out over the deep bluish green of the Pacific and realized it was far more pleasant than the brown, fishy smelling water of the Gulf of Mexico. He looked over at his friends as they laughed and joked and observed how unalike his family they all were. And as Penny's hand met his under the warm, fine sand and she smiled at him, Sheldon Cooper realized he didn't actually hate the beach after all.


	2. Chapter 2

Sitting at the edge of the pier, he let his feet dangling in the hot summer breeze. He could hear his family calling for him further down the beach, but he didn't run to them. They'd find him eventually, but for now, he reveled in the sounds of the waves rolling to shore and the seagulls calling in the distance. The sun was setting, or rather, the earth was rotating so that it appeared that the sun was setting just below the horizon.

Sheldon was six years old, but he already knew that the earth rotates at 25000m/24h (or 23 hours 56 minutes 4.09053 seconds). He knew how to calculate the phase speed of a wave on the surface of the water. And he knew that his mother was probably going to smack him with the Bible for running off after the fight with his father.

It seemed like there was nothing between Sheldon and the sun but an endless expanse of water (although it was still 1.496×108 km from the Earth, as always) and for a moment, he wanted to jump in and swim to the sun. Of course that was silly, there was a 30.67 foot drop from where he was perched and the water below, and judging by the gradual gradient of the beach into the Gulf, it was unlikely he'd survive the fall.

Sometimes, Sheldon hated the fact that he knew things. Watching the other children play, unknowing and uncaring about the world around them. Missy hardly ever fought with their Dad, they got along so well. Sheldon was always butting heads with his father. They were from two different worlds, as the expression goes.

It was just an expression, but it was almost true. His father was a man of the earth always talking about hunting, fishing, drinking and sleeping, barbecues, picnics, sports and women. Sheldon looked up at the evening sky trying to see the stars in the murky sky. That's where he belonged. In the space/time fabric of the universe working out the mysteries that God or whomever may or may not have created just for him.


	3. Chapter 3

Sheldon loved dinosaurs just like any other six year old boy. He remembers visiting the Houston Museum of Natural Science and staring up at the full scale Dromaeosaurus with awe just like all the other boys. Voices would sound in awe at different intervals wowing at the teeth and claws of the model. The fossils of the Archaeopteryx, one of the oldest known dinosaurs, and the bones of the Tyrannosaurus Rex that towered toward the high ceilings brought all of the boys together equally interested in the mighty monsters that once roamed the earth. Of course, while the other boys roared and stomped around, gnashing their teeth in imitation, Sheldon sat taking notes.

Dromaeosaurus – "running lizard", theropod: most likely carnivorous, feathered, Late Cretaceous  
Archaeopteryx – "old bird, first bird", archaeopterygidae, theropod: omnivorous (correlation?), Late Jurassic

When other boys laughed and joked about "dinosaur poop" and made rude noises, Sheldon would kindly explain to them that the correct term was coprolite and it was the fossilized remains of dinosaur excrement that was very helpful by informing paleontologists about the diet of the dinosaurs. Most of the time, the other boys would walk off, uninterested. Other times, they would call him names, the most common being "poop head". One time, a rather large boy actually pushed him into the T-Rex display causing the security guards to call his parents and leave the premises for the day.

The fond memories of dinosaurs and the museum came flooding back to him as his fingers lovingly stroked his membership card to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. He knew he had to give up one of his memberships, but he didn't think he was ready to let this one go. He picked up his phone and dialed the number.

"This is Doctor Sheldon Cooper. Yeah, I need to cancel my membership to the Planetarium…Well I'm sorry too, but there's just no room for you in my wallet... Yeah, I understand, but it was between you and the Museum of Natural History, and frankly, you don't have dinosaurs..."


	4. Chapter 4

He turned the book over and brushed his hands over the cover. Looking over the stack of scientific tomes he checked out from the library, he couldn't believe he got away with this one. He remembered the bored librarian carelessly scanning Feynman, Hawking and Faraday. She barely batted an eye as James Bruce's _Sex Anatomy and the Technique of Coitus_ passed under the laser. Surely a fourteen year old shouldn't be allowed this kind of access to the world of smut.

Sheldon locked his door making sure that his sister wouldn't be able to weasel her way inside. Knowing that he had to finish the book by 9 o'clock before his mother came in to tell him to go to sleep, he turned off his light, and crawled under his blanket with his flashlight.

In all of his seventeen years, Sheldon had never been in this type of situation. Her name was Elaine and she was beautiful – large brown eyes and silky blonde hair that tumbled in curls down her back all the way to her perfectly formed posterior. She was Professor Schultz's daughter as well as a freshman at the university and Sheldon was pretty sure he was in love with her.

He was currently working on his thesis and dealing with this kind of distraction was bothersome at the best of times. Every time she walked past him, he caught the scent of coconut and chocolate and the resulting reaction reminded him of the chapters of Bruce's books he had read time and time again. Judging by her constant presence and the way she touched his shoulder or a brushed her fingers on his back, he concluded that his affection for her might be reciprocated. It didn't help that he once overheard her tell one of her friends that intelligence was a major "turn on". If that was the case, he might as well change his name to Rudolf Valentino, or whatever Hollywood hunk made women weak in the knees these days.

His suspicions were confirmed one evening when she made her way to his quarters on the pretense of getting help with her College Algebra homework. She knocked on his door and asked him if he was alone. His roommate had gone home to New York for the week and so he would be by himself for the night. When he told her this, she locked the door behind him, dropped her textbook on the floor and kissed him on the mouth.

Fireworks went off in his mind, splitting his brain, metaphorically, into two equal parts. One part was jumping up and down, pumping his fists in the air and yelling "Yeehaw!" The other was wondering what to do with his hands and trying hard not to think of the germs that they were currently exchanging via saliva. He awkwardly placed his hands on her waist and opened his mouth allowing her tongue access.

He moaned as she pulled his shirts up over his head and threw them down to the floor on top of her book. Before he could object to the half-hazard way she was dealing with his garments, she pushed him toward his bed and undid his belt buckle. In one fell swoop, she pulled down his pants and underwear and shoved him down onto the bed.

It had been an embarrassing affair. He remembered feeling uncomfortable and ashamed, as he lay naked under her nearly fully clothed body. She lifted her skirt enough to engage in intercourse, but all of the pleasure belonged to her. Or at least it would have if he hadn't "arrived" early. She left in a huff, slamming the door behind her as he lay shivering in his bed wondering what had just happened. Was this what the masses were clamoring over themselves to attain? Everywhere he looked – television, books, billboards, men's bathroom stalls – there were references to sex. Suddenly, it seemed to him like the people around him were nothing but animals, lusting for physical contact, driven by the desire to mate.

As Sheldon dressed himself he thought about how much more he could achieve if he left this heated nonsense to the plebeians and concentrated instead on the science he knew and loved with all of his heart and mind. Physics was his mate – he didn't need physical contact to be whole.

He never saw Elaine again, but after that night, he couldn't have cared less.


End file.
